Sunday, January 31, 2010

LOST: all about Rose (and Bernard)...?

ROSE AND BERNARD.

Remember when Locke first joined up w the Others? Ben two-facedly welcomed him to the tribe and then challenged him to kill his kidney-stealing father in front of his people, remember? Well, at that time, I think Ben, Richard, and also the recruited Oceanic flight attendant (?) all explained to Locke that the Others had been waiting for him to join them, as their Chosen One, y'know? He's told that when people heard that there was a man on their plane who was paralyzed but could now walk again, they were excited. Because something like that could only happen to someone very special. Someone with a connection to the Island.

Hello? What about Rose? The Island beat the big C for her. Isn't that just a little tiny bit special? That makes me think that the Others don't know about her miracle.

She knew about Locke's recovery, but I don't think Locke actually knows about hers, or at least, not the details, eh? Just that she's sick? I seem to remember that they share a moment before boarding 815 in Sydney when she drops her meds and they roll away to where John is waiting in his wheelchair. He bends over to pick them up and hand them back to her.

I'm a little fuzzy on her outback backstory now (her visit to the healer who couldn't help her), but did she work at somehow keeping her illness a secret? Or maybe the Others' intel gathering does not include confidential medical records. I mean, Locke's paralysis would be noted in a number of legal and government records, so they wouldn't need his medical history to get that info. But cancer might not be that easy to track in a paper trail that doesn't include confidential info. So, maybe she doesn't show up on the Others' radar. Maybe she's special, and she has a connection with the Island, but she's way more Zen about it, and glad to be left out of the zany social engineering and political strife in and between any of the camps on the Island.

If Jacob is trying to prove to Esau that humanity is better than its greedy and selfish nature by inviting simple mortals to the Island and tempting them with its gifts and resources, I'd have to say that Rose and Bernard's life of retirement in the 1970s is Jacob's success. Maybe he knew they'd be on 815, but camoflaged them behind all the other personalities he "pushed" onto that flight. To let them come into their own without interference and to keep them off of the radar of Esau, Linus, and Widmore.

Granted, one might consider it a small success. What are two people, a couple, even, compared to an Island's society and humanity as a whole? But y'know, in the melodrama of mythology and religion, isn't the saving of even one soul supposed to count as something fantastic? It proves a potential in the species that can be realized, right?

Perhaps it's Rose and Bernard that Jacob refers to when he says, "They're coming." The proof. The bright future of humanity.

Yeah, a long shot, I know.

I've got longer...

Remember the Island's "Adam and Eve?" Their bodies were found in the caves by the fresh water early in the first season. Jack says their bodies were laid to rest there, and he discovers a small pouch on one of them that contains a black stone and a white stone, similar to the backgammon pieces that Locke shows to Walt on the beach.

What if these are the bodies of Rose and Bernard? They're not near the Swan site at the time of the Incident in 1977, so maybe the detonation of the energy pocket is localized, and, whatever the time-shunting effect, it does not reach Rose and Bernard in their jungle hideaway. They go on to live on the Island for several more years and die peacefully, perhaps together, or one right after the other, at those caves.

Of course, there's a slight problem with that. When Jack inspects the bodies, he says that it would take 40 or 50 years for clothing to degrade to the degree that theirs has. Sure, MAYbe pre-death wear and tear on their ragged castaway clothing might account for some of that, but taken at face value, sadly, the facts don't jive.

One thing that might've clinched it (JW reminded me of the black and white stones as backgammon pieces) would be if we saw a backgammon set figured prominently at Rose and Bernard's retirement home. Alas, I don't recall any such conspicuous sight. Do you?

And, still longer...

We don't see inside Rose and Bernard's little beach house, so who knows what might be there. They've been there three years, tho, so, a lot of things could have happened, like, say... a baby! Whaddaythink? Is Rose so far beyond child-bearing age that it couldn't happen? On the Island?

OK, it's a little far-fetched that they'd leave a wee one alone in their hut while they go walk Vincent, but, maybe he was comfortably down for his afternoon nap? Just let's run with this for a little while...

Now, what might they name this baby? How about... Matthew? We know the Others are cool with recruiting kids, as we've seen with Ben, Ethan, Alex, and the two Tailies, right? Let's say Rose and Bernard are taken out of the picture for some reason. We'll say that the Incident yanks them back to the future along with all the other still-living-in-1977 Losties. Baby Matthew, having been born in the present of the 70s on the Island, would be left behind for the Others to find and assimilate. He would grow up as an Other, and discover he has an uncanny knack for being in the right place at the right time to help people get things done. In fact, he consistently ends up bringing people to that right place at the right time. He would learn Other-hood under the leadership of Widmore and Hawking, until they leave the Island and Ben assumes the role.

And, somewhere along the way, he might be given a new surname, donchathink? Maybe something exotic and ominous, like... Abaddon? Matthew Abaddon. He's the orderly who nudges Locke into embracing the notion of going Walkabout, which lands him on flight 815. In 2004, he's Widmore's arranger, who assembles Naomi and the Fantastic Four for their mission to the Island. And in 2007, he's Locke's guide back in the outside world, as well as a man that Ben recognizes by sight as a threat, and alas, kills.

Am I being a total wishful thinker (or a terrible 30 ROCK joke) when I say, I can't tell how old Abaddon is supposed to be, but couldn't he be around 30 years old?

OK. Let's say that Matthew is their kid, and lives out his life thru 2007 the way I've described. Let's say that Rose and Bernard are zapped back to the future along with everyone else. When they realize what's happened, they'll want to find their adult son. The truth will eventually out, somehow, that Ben shot and killed him, right? I think this should happen at a moment when Ben believes he has finally triumphed in some way. Perhaps he's turned on Esau-Locke as well, and somehow set himself up as successor to Jacob and Esau's roles and power. There might be just a few seconds in the ascension process where he's vulnerable, and in those seconds, enraged Rose and Bernard take their vengeance. Maybe Rose leads with a blade, or, given Bernard's Rambo experience, he makes a kill shot from a distance, saving everyone.